I will certainly look around, till then I will see if the library has a copy. From the excerpts I seen on this thread I am already interested.
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I will certainly look around, till then I will see if the library has a copy. From the excerpts I seen on this thread I am already interested.
Yes, they may be hard to understand at times, but so are a great many religious texts, as a Christian I have not found the Bible that easy to understand in areas.Quote:
Originally Posted by blazeofglory
You can find the Gita with commentaries. As Nikolai has recommended Prabhupad's translation, you can better start with that.
There is no doubt that the Gita is one of the great ancient treasures and of course we can not find any book to match the depth and profundity one comes across in the book.
The whole book is full of wisdom, and a fountainhead of spirituality.
The Bhagbad Gita is the sum and substance of the Upanishads and the Vedas. The vedas I think is the most sophisticated ancient book and philosophically very rich.
I often want to go lost in the philosophies and spirituality of these great ancient treasures.
When I get a copy and have had the time to digest some of it i will let you have some of my thoughts on the writings.
Thanks for your advice.
I really don't know how "good" it is but there is a translation from 1900 on the site here :) http://www.online-literature.com/ano...bhagavad-gita/
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Thanks Logos, I've just had a quick look. I don't know the quality of the translation, but I shall take longer read late, this will suffice until I get a paper copy.
I know! I remembered that there was and I read the first chapter yester-day, it was quite interesting. I can't say if the whole thing is really good or bad just from that... there are many advantages of reading Prabhupada's translation, and I would recommend to read that one first. For instance Arjuna calls Krishna by different names in this translation- like Janardana and Madhusudana (the killer of the demon Madhu)- and Prabhupada explains what all these mean, and sometimes explains why Arjuna might be using one name or another. He gives the Sanskrit as well as word-for-word equivalents, an english translation and purports. He's a very good writer, very deep yet also accessible. Most important is that he is a devotee of Krishna and not just a scholar or philosopher. I can honestly say that his philosophy is the highest one of any I've seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Logos
I found a PDF copy and downloaded it to get a start, but I will be going to the library tomorrow to see if they have the translation you reccomend. There is always Amazon later.
My wife remindeed me that we actually had a copy of the gita a few years back when she was studying yogic philosophy. just goes to show some books should be stored just in case they are required later, sadly we got rid of it just before moving to a new house (in the year 2000!).
http://www.bhagavad-gita.us looks like it has the whole thing online for free. The copy of Bhagavad Gita I own is a hardback copy of Prabhupada's translation. It's got a very full index where you can look up words and verses. It's nice to have a paper-hard back copy to read, don't have to use electicity :) and also there's the wonderful index and there's also great illustrations.
NikolaiI, thanks for the link it looks okay. I have added it to my favourites list for quick use. I got a copy from the library yesterday - Hindu Scriptures - Edited by Dr Nicol MacNicol and forwarded by Rabindranath Tagore - 1959.
I will cross referance the site with book and hopefully get back to you after a few days. Thanks for your help.
I was looking at a few different things online when I came to this letter written by Srila Prabhupada, long before he ever came to America. I'm posting it here because it summarizes the Gita in a profound and inspirational way. Prabhupada is beloved by millions, and his words are so important, even or especially today, when we seem to be so divided.
1947: July 13
Cawnpore
Raja Mohendra Pratap
World Federation
Prem MohaVidyalaya
P.O. Brindaban.
Dear Raja Sahib,
In continuation of my last post card, I beg to inform you that I have finished the reading of your book Religion of Love. In my opinion the whole thesis is based on the philosophy of pantheism and the approach is made by the services of mankind. Religion of love is the true religious idea but if the approach is made through the service of mankind only, then the process is made imperfect, partial and unscientific.
As you say the waves of the creations are the different aspects, why a particular type of waves namely the mankind should be partially selected and offered services and why other types of waves such as the beasts or birds, the plants and the stone shall not be offered a similar type of services? In that case how can you say that the worship of a stone is sinful while a man who is more than a stone shall be considered as the object of love? These are some of the questions that arise out of a critical study of your book.
If you so desire I can enter into discussions about it and my opinion is that your approach is partial and unscientific. There is no hesitation to accept the principle of the Religion of Love because the Absolute Truth is, as we have known, Godhead Who is sat, cit and ananda. Without ananda there cannot be any love that is an accepted fact. Your delineation of society, friendship and love among the human beings is based on this ananda portion only but you have avoided the other portions of eternity and cognition of God the Whole Soul. Thus the approach is partial and unscientific.
The true religion of love is perfectly inculcated in the Bhagavad-gita. When we speak of love there must be the object of love and the lover too. Here in this world we find that the object of love and the lover both are the cheater and the cheated in their reciprocal dealings. That is our experience. But the ultimate end being one Whole Soul, the dual existence of the object of lover and the loved loses identity. In that case the eternity and cognizibility of the loved and lover vanish at once. In this way there arises many questions which may be put forward to you for further discussions to adjust your ideas of religion.
Besides you have not quoted any authority for all your statements. So it is more or less dogmatic. If different men put different dogmatic views about religion and its essentials who is to be accepted and who is not be? Therefore the approach shall be and must be authoritative, scientific and universal. Your delineations do not conform to all these necessary things. That is my main contention.
If you have time to discuss on it, I shall be glad to substantiate my contentions as far as possible. My basis of arguments will be Bhagavad-gita which is the most authoritative, scientific and universal. To summarise the conclusions of Bhagavad-gita it may be said that,
1) God is one and everything is in Him and He is in everything.
2) To render transcendental service unto God is to serve everything that be, just like to water the root of the tree is to water the different branches and numerous leaves of the tree or to supply food to the stomach is to vitalize all the senses and the sense organs of the body.
3) The parts are automatically served when the Whole is served but when the parts are served the whole may not be served or not served at all.
4) The parts and the Whole being eternally related, it is the eternal duty of the parts to render service unto the Whole.
5) A recipient of the services of the parts, God’s sat-cit-ananda vigraha i.e. the all-attractive Cognizant and all-blissful Personality eternal. He can reveal Himself by His own potency without any help of the external potency called maya in order to be cognizable by the limited potency of the parts and as such He is not only the greatest of all but he is the smallest of all. That is His prerogative.
6) He is better realized when He by His causeless mercy agrees to descend in this mortal world but he He is never realised by the partial speculations of the empiric philosophers however systematic and long-termed it may be.
7) Sri Krishna is the Personality of Godhead and is the Summum Bonum Cause of all Causes proved by fact and figures in the statement of Bhagavad-gita, but He reserves the right of not being exposed to the sensual speculations of the empiric philosophers.
8) One should therefore surrender unto Him if one wants to know Him as He is and that is the real process to approach the Infinite by the infinitesimals.
9) Sri Krishna is easily available by the religion of love i.e. by love and service as conceived by the damsels of Vraja who had practically no education whatsoever and much less any claim for high class birth right.
10) The highest service that can be rendered to the mankind is, therefore, to preach the philosophy and religion of Bhagavad-gita for all the times, all the places and all the people.
I hope you may agree with me and thus make a combined effort in this direction for the benefit of the mankind.
Yours sincerely,
Abhay Charan De
I read the above very carefully and found that there was a lot that was understandable.
Point one that Abhay Charan De bought up in his summary is something that I have always believed. Also points three and four are things that I have believed throughout my life.
I am hoping to have made some headway into the copy I have by the end of the week. Strange question I know and has probably been asked many times before but is this (the teaching of the Gita, compatible with Christianity?
Those are important points. Einstein said something similar to this philosophy; "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
But in reply to your question, my answer would be yes. Jesus said the most important commandment was to love God. This is also the goal of this philosophy. Only with the Gita it is very scientific, it is actually called the science of self-realization, or the science of God-realization. The goal is to love God, and what this means is that you serve Him. The main injunction of Bhagavad-Gita is to dedicate all your works for the benefit of the Lord. The best process for spiritual advancement is to always meditate upon the Lord, to chant His glories, sing His praises, read about Him, and preach about Him. This is for me an expansion of Christ's commandment to love God, it's scientific.
Thank you NikolaiI, I will be reading the copy I have and post some of my feelings hopefully by the end of this week. It make take time as I am a slowish reader, whenever I read I like to take in every word.
"Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend" BG 18.65
"To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance" (Bhagavad-gita 10.11).
"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 10.10).
"Abandon all varieties of mundane religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." (Bhagavad-gita 18:66).
O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible. BG 9.13
Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. BG 9.14